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78 religion; and it remains an obvious fact that He must play a very secondary part by the side of the glorious and Divine Apollonius. Such was the position which Julia Domna took when she asked Philostratus to write the life of Apollonius. Philostratus may have been less impressed than his royal mistress with the greatness and truth of Christianity, but he scrupulously kept in view the idea she had formed of religious truth—an idea which is perceptible in the lives both of Maesa and Soemis, with a decided bias in favour of Pagan superstition in the case of Soemis, and in favour of Christianity in the case of Maesa, with a clearly-expressed appreciation of its higher character. There are two isolated facts in the lives of Septimius Severus and Caracalla which to all appearance are of trifling importance, but which can only be explained by such a train of thought as we have been describing. These two emperors allowed the Pagans to make Hercules their heir; hence great riches soon accrued to the temples and priests of that popular deity. At the same time, while refusing to persecute the Chris-